So I have FINALLY started watching Enterprise... love it so far!!

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Enterprise' started by Trek Survivor, Feb 25, 2014.

  1. Isolinear

    Isolinear Commander Red Shirt

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    I'm nearly done rewatching the show. Although I still think Enterprise has the weakest cast of characters, I was pleasantly surprised. It was not as "boring" as I remembered.

    And more than that, I actually enjoyed the first two seasons as much if not more than S3/4 this time. Maybe I just prefer standalones over multi-episode arcs. Or maybe TNG/VOY-style exploration is more my thing than DS9-style political soap opera and war epics.

    Anyway, only 1 more episode to go. TATV. :barf:
     
  2. Yanks

    Yanks Commodore Commodore

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    Noooooo!!!!! Don't do it!!!! :devil:
     
  3. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    SAVE YOURSELF!!!
     
  4. Shanndee

    Shanndee Commodore Commodore

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    Even I have seen TATV. Run away!!

    Really, don't put yourself through that on purpose! :)
     
  5. dub

    dub Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    In my whiny Ahdar Ru'afo voice...

    "NNNnnooooooooooooOOOOO!!!!!!!!!"

    :scream::ack::scream:

    [​IMG]
     
  6. foxmulder710

    foxmulder710 Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Trek Survivor, what happened? I was really enjoying your little reviews. Did you finish season four?
     
  7. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    He watched TATV and had to go on a "holiday".
     
  8. Isolinear

    Isolinear Commander Red Shirt

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    I think you are mistaking me for Trek Survivor.

    Trek Survivor, where are you? I'm really curious what you think of S4.
     
  9. dub

    dub Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    ...and Isolinear, did you heed our warnings? I wish I did when I was watching for the first time. I specifically remember some of the same people who warned you warned me also. They were right. But I had to see what they were right about. Curiosity killed the cat indeed.
     
  10. Isolinear

    Isolinear Commander Red Shirt

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    I wasn't watching it for the first time. Probably the third time. But yes, I watched TATV again yesterday. Not gonna discuss it in case Trek Survivor pops back in. But I will say this; it wasn't as awful as many people make it out to be. Just very mediocre with a lot of strange story decisions for a series finale.

    But the nature of the episode makes it very easy to dismiss a lot of scenes as non-canonical anyway, so no real harm done I suppose. I get to pick and choose what happened, and what didn't happen. :p
     
  11. Trek Survivor

    Trek Survivor Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Sorry I haven't updated for a while. Between the world cup and lots of DIY projects around the home, I haven't watched too many of late. However, have got five episodes to update on, starting with another trilogy...

    "The Forge" / "Awakening" / "kir'shara":

    Ok, first and foremost - nnnnnoooo! Not Admiral Forrest. Absolutely gutted this character got killed off. I really liked his supporting role, and - though Archer grimaced a little - it wasn't really treated with the drama and impact it should've been. Still, while I liked Forrest, you couldn't ask for a more dramatic opening to this set of episodes.

    Robert Foxworth back in a very-similar role to Leyton from "Deep Space Nine"? Hmm. Didn't really buy him as a Vulcan, but I like the guy in everything I see him in, so we'll let it slide.

    The story itself: Plenty of excitement, and Ambassador Soval came across well. From "villain" in the early series to a staunch ally of Enterprise now. I enjoyed how this trilogy of episodes suggests the Vulcans are going to be less pr**k-like in the future, which dovetails nicely with other Trek shows. T'Pol had some good moments, though I wasn't very keen on the character of T'Pau. I don't know if it was the actress choice or what, but she wasn't particularly likeable and even at the end, I didn't really "feel" what I thought the producers wanted me to feel about her fate.

    "Daedalus": Well, I'm glad to be back to one-off episodes for a bit, and though the "twist" of this show was apparent almost from the outset, the episode itself was quite good. Bill Cobb is a likeable actor, but I'm not sure he was the right one for this part; also, the daughter made little impression - when your two guest cast don't feel quite 'right' in their parts, the episode is in a bit of trouble.

    I DID like the effects of the 'warping' space as the trapped son tried to get back, and the death of that one crewmember was suitably horrific.

    "Observer Effect": Now, this was a good episode. Directed very well, and I thought Dominic Keating did a good job under alien influence (though whenever Anthony Montgomery is given something meatier to do, his lack of acting chops shine through... sorry Mayweather fans!). The scene where Phlox realises what is happening, but also knows his memory is going to be 'tampered' with is unsettling, and the pace and atmosphere of this episode is just right.

    Archer tending to Trip is sweet as well.

    So, I am now exactly half-way through season 4... only 11 episodes to go! Season 4 has been good, but - contrary to general consensus it seems - I am not sure I will yet say it's the best so far. General quality seems a notch down on season 3 and no episode so far has beaten my favourite episodes from season 1-3 as yet.

    Don't get me wrong, it's solid, but not quite as "wow" as maybe I was expecting from the hype.

    Of course I hear the latter half of the season has some great episodes, so my opinion might yet change!
     
  12. HopefulRomantic

    HopefulRomantic Mom's little girl Moderator

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    Good to see you back, Trek Survivor. :)

    "Observer Effect" is my favorite ENT episode. The rest of my "top 4" are in Season 3 - "Similitude," "The Forgotton," "Damage."

    I also love the Vulcan trilogy because of Soval's character development. It's fun to look at the Soval of earlier seasons in hindsight, knowing the secrets he was keeping - he was a closet melder, he had an affinity for humanity all along, he had a great partnership with Admiral Forrest, and he was basically playing the VHC and serving a higher ideal. I totally loved Soval after this set of episodes. I think he and Archer could have developed a good give-and-take in later seasons, if we'd gotten them, because they finally started to see eye-to-eye in Season 4 and developed a good rapport. Ah, what might have been.

    But the loss of Forrest was just... [​IMG] At least he had a good death, sacrificing himself to save Soval. A good man to the last.
     
  13. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Soval... :adore:

    [​IMG]
     
  14. Trek Survivor

    Trek Survivor Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    "Babel One" / "United" / "Aenar":

    What a FANTASTIC run of episodes! Definitely the best 'trilogy' story so far in season four. The backdrop of the peace talks, and the coming together of the Tellarites, Andorians and humans all worked very well into a decent plot of Romulan interference.

    I thought I'd have my fill of the Romulans, but Enterprise has used them well. I also really liked the development of the Andorian race with the 'Aenar' (have they appeared anywhere else?). Potentially goofy-looking, they actually come across very well.

    Again, the sets and special effects for Enterprise look superb.

    The only bit that fell a little flat for me is the T'Pol/Trip stuff in 'Aenar' - if this were edited together as a feature length movie you could easily lose most of that stuff and the episode wouldn't really suffer (except for Trip's shock request for reassignment at the end, but you could cut that too).

    Shran got over his girlfriend and moved on to the next a little quickly!!

    All in all, a great trilogy of episodes, some of the best in season 4 so far!
     
  15. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well....

    The Animated Series episode "Yesteryear" featured a light grey Andorian who took Spock's place in another timeline. The real reason he was light grey was because the guy who did the colours for TAS was colour blind (hence pink Tribbles and pink-clad Kzinti and Klingons in other episodes - all he saw were shades of grey!) It's a popular theory that the Aenar were invented to explain away that 30-year-old colouring error. Also, in The Next Generation, Andorians were green. We later see on Enterprise that...
    when an Aenar and Andorian have a child, they come out green!
     
  16. Trek Survivor

    Trek Survivor Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Well, it's been a couple of weeks, and as I finished the series a week ago, it's time to round off with the final six episodes of the series...

    "Bound":
    Look, I never object to scantily clad women in my Star Trek, but this just didn't seem to have much of an engaging plot. The revelation that the men are actually under the control of the women was an interesting twist, but the actual episode felt a little dull. It was great seeing Colonel Lynch from the A-Team though, even if he was green!

    "In A Mirror Darkly" (Parts 1-2)
    Oh dear, looks like I'm going to annoy a lot of people but... I just don't see why this two-parter gets so much love. Well, no, I do see why - I just don't really share it.
    Perhaps it was the timing of the episodes: With only a few episodes left of the series, it felt a bit wasted to do these shows which aren't even about "our" crew. Perhaps if there'd been a season 5+ I'd be feeling more generous...
    It was an interesting move to not go the usual mirror universe route of having somebody from our universe transport to the mirror one, but rather telling the whole story from 'their' side. But I felt we lost...something by doing it that way. Maybe it was any impact on our characters, which made me somewhat uninterested in what happened to these people.
    Yes, it was fun to see our characters acting differently, and the recreation of the Kirk-era ship, and Soval with a goatee (!!) - oh, and the Gorn (though absolutely irrelevant to the plot) was good. And of course, T'Pol in TOS style uniform... but still, lots of little 'cool' moments does not a great episode make.

    "Demons" / "Terra Prime":
    This is more like it. A fantastic two-parter that really takes our characters into interesting places, and gives us a fascinating 'villain' in Paxton. The fact he's not foaming at the mouth trying to wipe out other races, but rather taking a more isolationist perspective elevates his characterisation. Peter Weller did a great job. The whole theme of this two-parter, and Archer's speech at the end, played very well to the series as a whole, and the formation of what Star Trek is to become.

    Throw in plenty of action as well, and it turned out great.

    As for T'Pol and Trip's daughter... some great acting from our Chief Engineer, but I really wish the baby had survived. Must be by sentimental side or something. I'm not completely sure I quite got what Paxton's point was by creating the baby (going through a lot of effort) but it added to the overall wallop of the episodes.

    Great stuff.

    And now, for "These Are The Voyages".
    I was very aware of the controversy surrounding this episode, and vaguely remember watching this nine years ago when Channel 4 first aired it in the UK (I had only ever seen "Broken Bow" in 2002, so could barely remember the characters etc - must've tuned in just for Riker and Troi).

    But now was a very different context: A series I had watched from the beginning was coming to an end, and this episode was it's finale.

    First, the good: I genuinely get what Berman and Braga were trying to do here. I can't hate them for this, I understand what they were striving for. And as Trek has always been about striving for something greater, I won't bash them too hard on that score.
    The idea of the future crew/s looking back at Enterprise Nx-01 and its impact in history is also intriguing.
    That's...about it for the good.

    The bad:
    Frakes and Sirtis. I say this as a TNG fan first and forever, but... they didn't look good in this. Placing the 'future' scenes in the TNG series era was a mistake; placing it in the MIDDLE OF AN ESTABLISHED EPISODE WAS OUTRAGEOUSLY STUPID. It strained credulity and frankly didn't add much at all. Aside from 'nostalgia' for the Enterprise-D, these scenes - if they had to exist - should've been on the Titan, with an appropriately-aged Riker and Troi.

    I really felt too much time was spent with Riker and Troi... the Enterprise crew barely got a look in, and it was their final episode! And, although above I mentioned I like the idea of a retrospective on Archer's crew, the fact that they technically didn't even appear in this episode really smacks of a wasted opportunity.

    The jumping forward in time from the last episode by 5 or 6 years... just added to the silly nature of the story. Yes, in Trek, we always suspend our disbelief that characters rarely move on/change/get promoted etc... but it just stood out here as particularly disappointing.

    The story for Archer and co themselves: Boring. It was good to see Shran, but he was wasted and the "find my daughter" thing did not seem appropriately epic for a finale.

    Trip's death: Unnecessary, and wasted potential. I get that it was the final episode, but it seemed almost spiteful to kill him off in such a way. It wasn't heroic enough, and we didn't even get that much reaction from the rest of the characters. Moreover, I just can't see it helping Riker's dilemma all that much. Riker isn't some freshfaced ensign by the time of "The Pegasus" - this is the man that survived the Borg attack. He knows all about duty, doing one's bit etc. It was a redundant lesson and the fact it came at Trip's expense...well.

    All in all, an abysmal finale. I know they didn't have loads of time to craft a finale, but surely they recognised that Terra Prime offered a more appropriate ending than this?

    What they should've done (I know, I know, hindsight is so easy...): Reduce Enterprise season 4 from 22 episodes down to 20. Have Demons/Terra Prime (with a little rewriting) be the double length finale.

    But, you cry, UPN had agreed and financed 22 episodes - what a waste! Well, what they could've done with the 'final' 90 minutes is a "Star Trek: Legacy" one-off special episode. THIS is where they should've done some sort of situation in the 24th century (possibly with representatives from TNG/DS9/VOY: Frakes and Sirtis will attend the opening of a Trek envelope; as I suspect, will the likes of Garrett Wang, Tim Russ... and I bet they could've got some one from DS9, even Nog!) - a situation which recalls a flashback or two to Enterprise and Archer.

    As it isn't technically an episode of "Enterprise" (which had its own finale and end) this episode could be more free to balance time around the different series representatives and - knowing Trek was at an end (for the forseeable) Berman and Braga could've crafted their 'valentine to the fans' as its own thing.

    But what about the budget? Yes, it would've been tight... but heck, you have some Trek actors working for practically nothing on these unofficial fan films...I'm sure they could have been persuaded for something similar. As for building sets... the future parts didn't need to take place on any of the recognisable ships or sets, but something new.

    Enterprise's production values prove that, on an episode-by-episode basis, you could still go to space stations, planets etc... SOMETHING good could've come from it.

    Anyway, I disgress: Back to Enterprise. Now my journey is at an end, I can say that Enterprise is a more than worthy addition to the Trek franchise. It charted new territories for Trek in storytelling (such as the season-long Xindi arc) as well as exploring Trek's own history, and moving back to TOS-style old fashioned adventure stories, particularly in seasons 1-2 (which I loved). The cast and crew did a great job.

    It can stand proudly alongside TOS, TNG and DS9 as a truly innovative, interesting series. One day maybe I'll give Voyager a chance as well :-)
     
  17. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Glad you enjoyed ENT, overall! :)

    And Trip got better in the post-series novels.
     
  18. Shantea

    Shantea Cadet Newbie

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    My first post here. Just wanted to say how much I loved Enterprise S3/S4. I genuinely find it better than most of TNG, and can't decide whether I like DS9 or ENT3/4 better. I started watching Enterprise last year. I found the first season so bad I could hardly stomach it. I really took me months to finish it. My thoughts about the show didn't get any better at the beginning of S2, but eventually, I really started to like it. The writing/acting got better after each episode, I really liked that. Hell, I even started to like the opening theme! Then came last episode of S2. I think it took me 5 or 6 days to watch entire season 3. I was consumed by it. "Similitude", "Harbringer", "Azati Prime" and many more are not just my favorite episodes from the season, but from the whole Enterprise and Star Trek in general. Especially true about Similitude. Every single actor gave its absolute best. Story was fantastic. Wow. What really amazed me in entire S3 was how dark it was. After watching DS9, I thought Star Trek could not get any darker. Then comes Archer torturing that space pirate. That was really the turning point in entire show I believe. Before that he was just plain, boring and naive captaine with absolutely no clue about what he's doing. Or when he decided to stole missing parts for ENT from another ship. I could go on for hours... The whole idea of entire season was fantastic. A race with 5 species! Season 4 was also really good, especially the Vulcan arc and Terra Prime. The speech Archer gave at the end was downright one of best speaches in entire franchise, period.

    Really the only two gripes I've had with ENT were:

    1) Travis. I think he's most under-developed character in all of Star Trek ever. Really, what memorable thing did he do? Or said? I remember nothing apart from "yes, captain, I can set our course".

    2) Changing of theme song in S3/S4. Theme really annoyed me in the beginning of the show, but I got used to it. And then comes season 3 bringing you some of the darkest Trek ever, and they make that tune even happier. Seriously, what the hell?
     
  19. jespah

    jespah Taller than a Hobbit Moderator

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    Hi and welcome Shantea! :)

    /puts out plate of cookies and assorted pitchers of beverages/

    Yeah, Travis ... oy. His role was a lot like the lesser known players in TOS, like the guy(s?) who Chekov replaced. Faceless, barely known. Which is unfortunate - the opportunity to work with a space boomer should've been one that Archer seized a lot more. But it's a numbers game. The show's only have a limited amount of screen time. Add more to one person or pairing, and another one suffers. By the time we get to S3 and the Trip/T'Pol pairing, it's taking up a lot of screen time.

    And the song, yeah, Bakula (I wish I could recall where I'd read this) said the addition of I think a tambourine or the like was something of a WTF moment, but he'd had that with Quantum Leap. The theme song was changed there, too, after a few years. I suppose there's a thought that it's fresher or something but yeah, the mood was absolutely not like that happy, cheery sound at all. Would've made a lot more sense to go in the other direction, slowing down the theme song, making it even sparer, really pointing up their isolation and moral ambiguities.
     
  20. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Travis had more to do than Chekov, he had a cave.